


Day Two Hundred Thirteen || Rake

by 365daysofsasuhina



Series: 365 Days of SasuHina 2019 [213]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 08:24:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20079145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/365daysofsasuhina/pseuds/365daysofsasuhina
Summary: He's so tired of these stupid genin D-rank! When are they going to do something interesting?





	Day Two Hundred Thirteen || Rake

He’s getting _awfully tired_ of all these stupid D-ranks. Kakashi keeps giving excuses about ‘building up experience’ and ‘learning how the mission system works’. But to Sasuke, at least, it’s obvious: they’re genin. New ones. Of _course_ they’re going to get stuck with all the lousy missions. Maybe it’s just something he’s supposed to accept, but Sasuke isn’t your typical genin. He doesn’t have a career in mind, or a rank he wants to reach. There’s only _one thing_ that occupies his thoughts from the moment he wakes up until the finally concedes to sleep every night.

Avenging his clan.

And while this pace might be what your usual genin is meant to go through...for him, it’s nothing but torture. He should be training every spare moment, sparring with powerful people to help improve his technique and power! If he’s ever going to kill Itachi - if he’s ever going to reach the same level as the one who killed the entire Uchiha clan - then he must..._must_ pour everything he has into improving his mind, his body, his arsenal of skills and jutsu.

Catching cats, doing yard work, and running errands is _not_ accomplishing _any_ of that. And it grinds his patience down to the quick.

“All right you three, any guesses what we’ll be doing today?”

Three little genin look up as Kakashi finally arrives. Naruto, as always, blows up into a rant over the Hatake’s tardiness. Hinata, looking a bit pensive as she fiddles nervous fingers, just...remains silent beside Sasuke. He, in turn, simply stares with a deadpan expression. True, Kakashi constantly being late pisses him off, too...but he also knows there’s nothing they can do to change it. They’re stuck with him just as much as he’s stuck with them.

And like they’re stuck with these stupid missions.

Ignoring Naruto’s jumps to try to grab their mission paperwork, Kakashi holds it aloft and offers, “With Autumn now in full swing, we’ve got several requests from a more leafy part of the village to do some raking! We’ll be taking what we pick up to the compost piles so nothing goes to waste.”

“...we’re gonna rake leaves?” Sasuke asks, perking a brow.

“Precisely.”

“And this is a shinobi’s work..._why_?”

“Well, I don’t know if a few rookie genin are exactly shinobi _yet_, but you’ll get there! Until then...it’s bottom of the barrel missions. Surely you get that by now,” Kakashi muses.

“But how do we _stop_ having bad missions? When do we actually get to prove we have what it takes to do something...better?”

“When I decide you’re ready! And right now...I’d say you’re still leaf-raking level.”

At the insult, Sasuke bristles, but pauses as Hinata steps up.

“Maybe, um...maybe you’d have a better idea of our...o-of our skills if we would train more _with_ you? Missions are important, of course...but we haven’t had all that much time to work on, um...shinobi drills a-and scenarios. Besides our first exercise...we haven’t had a chance to really work on our t-teamwork. And...and that’s important before we take any larger-scale missions...right?”

Kakashi perks a brow. “Well...you have a point.” He rubs his chin thoughtfully. “...all right. Tomorrow, we’ll have a more..._proper_ training exercise. But for today, we have our assignment. You can conquer the leaves, and think about how _fun_ training will be tomorrow!”

Scowling at their sensei’s dismissive tone, Sasuke nonetheless loses his edge. Hinata makes a good point. Even if Sasuke has pretty good rudimentary skills...that won’t hold up in a mission if the rest of his team is lagging behind, and they aren’t in-tune with each other to better coordinate. Kakashi’s been too busy running them ragged on pointless chores to actually _train_ them much, lately.

...good on her for getting that ball rolling.

The team makes its way to the residential district. Yards with trees of all kinds are speckled with leaves of yellow, orange, and red. In a way, it’s...sort of pretty. It almost reminds him of -

“All right, our assignment is this neighborhood here,” Kakashi cuts in, gesturing. “They all pooled together to ask for our help, so we’ll be doing _all_ of their yards.”

“All of them?!” Naruto hollers. “Are you serious?!”

“Exceedingly serious. We have to have them all done by the end of the day, so...hop to it!”

“What about you?” Sasuke asks. “You’re part of the team, right?”

“I’ll be supervising,” is the rebuke, the Uchiha’s scowl clearly ignored.

Meeting with the organizer of their mission, the team is given rakes and bags to collect the leaves in. Glancing around, they seem to weigh their options.

“So...how should we, um...do this?” Hinata asks. “Should we...each take a yard by ourselves, or...maybe all work together one at a time?”

“I guess it’ll be about the same pace no matter what we do,” Sasuke mutters flatly. “For now, let’s try each taking one. If someone lags behind, we’ll group back up.”

“Man, this _sucks_,” Naruto gripes. “If only one of us knew some fūton, right? We could just, like...scoop all the leaves up at once, into a big pile!”

“We’d still need to put them in bags, dobe.”

“Well yeah, but! It would still be less raking, right? Right?”

“True,” Hinata offers, smiling shyly and humoring him. “It would be n-nice. But I don’t, um...I don’t have any affiliation with wind style, sadly…”

“Neither do I - look, let’s just...get started, all right? The sooner we do, the sooner we get done.”

With that decided, the trio break up, all moving to one side of the street and tending to a yard each. Bringing the leaves into a neat pile, Sasuke glances to it thoughtfully. Part of him has the urge to just...use a little katon and burn them. No need for a bag then, right? But then, well...he doesn’t really have a way to put the fire _out_, or make sure it doesn’t spread beyond where he wants it. And he doubts the people living here want to look out their window and see something on fire. So, instead, he gathers them up into some bags, leaving them near the sidewalk and looking to the rest.

Hinata is nearly finished with hers, but...Naruto is having a little trouble.

“Hey, knock it off ya little brats! I’ve got a job to do!”

Perking a brow, Sasuke watches as a few Academy-age kids run around the lawn Naruto’s raking. Every time he gets anything piled up, they jump into it with squeals of merriment, and...the whole mound explodes back along the grass.

For a moment, he just...watches as a memory stirs. He used to do something similar when his mother would rake the yard every Autumn. She’d allow it for a time, but then insist he help her finish as repayment. He used to have so much fun watching the bright colors swirl and fly. And sometimes, Itachi would -

Flinching, he bows his head into a hand. No...that was a long time ago, now. Memories like those are traitorous. Anything tainted with his brother...he can’t…!

“Sasuke-kun?”

Looking up, he sees Hinata step up beside him, expression tinged with worry. Her own bags sit nearby. “Are...are you all right?”

“...fine. Just...a bit of a headache.” He nods to Naruto. “Think we should lend him a hand?

“I...think that might be best. He’s not going to get anywhere with those k-kids in the way,” she agrees sheepishly.

Crossing to the yard in question, Hinata works on distracting the little ones as Naruto and Sasuke rake as quickly as they can. By some miracle, they get the job done, the kids making sounds of disappointment.

“Sorry guys...b-but this is our job, ne? There will be more leaves for you to jump in next year!”

Thankfully, no other households have any children at home, and they manage to finish the entire street by late afternoon. Kakashi, lounging in one of the trees guilty for the mess, glances down as Naruto announces they’ve finished. “Well well, would you look at that? Now all we have to do is cart out the bags, and you’ll be done for the day!”

Naruto, stubborn as ever, takes as many as he can carry...and then some, tossing several atop his bent back. Sasuke just sighs, Hinata giggling as the blond struggles not to drop any.

“If you lose one and it spills, you’re picking it up by yourself,” the Uchiha warns.

“Yeah, yeah!”

Once all is said and done, Kakashi dismisses them for the day, vanishing in a cloud of vapor. Complaining of an empty stomach, Naruto announces his plans to go to Ichiraku’s. “You guys wanna come?”

“S...sure!” Hinata agrees. “Sasuke-kun?”

“Yeah...guess I might as well.”

Naruto marching out at the front, the dark-haired pair follow behind at an easy pace. “Well...that wasn’t _so_ bad,” Hinata muses.

“I guess not...still not really necessary for a shinobi to handle.”

“True…”

“At least you got us some proper training scheduled for tomorrow. Good job on that.”

Hinata’s head ducks shyly, going a bit pink at the praise. “I...I know everyone’s been frustrated, so...I thought - I-I thought some training might be a good break. From the missions, I mean.”

“At least that should take some skill...well, for the few hours Kakashi actually shows up,” Sasuke scowls.

“Well...better than nothing, right?”

“...right.”

**Author's Note:**

> More team seven!Hinata, woo! I dunno if I'll really make this much of a thing, but...it IS a concept I'd like to explore a bit. And it's a nice way to have them interact as genin, since...well, they don't do that much in canon.
> 
> But uh...yeah, not much else to say! It's late, as always...so I'ma go crash. Thanks for reading!


End file.
